Before you dismiss it as yet another made-up nonsense for the young generation, gamification does not mean turning serious academic material into games. Game mechanics, however, prove very useful when your goal is to create engaging content that facilitates information retention. There are at least four reasons why the use of games in online courses, as they help to satisfy four common learning needs.

Immersive learning environments mix the worlds of leisure and work or informal and formal learning and have the potential to function as a professional learning treat, making learning fun. As the available immersive technology improves, and high speed Internet is everywhere at a very small cost, immersive learning environments should begin to play more of a role as a supplement to or major component of professional learning.

Organizations that manage to hire talented people and help them grow are the most likely to succeed in the long run. It takes skill to balance both new and existing human capital, but creating individual development plans for each employee will surely be worth the effort. As employees grow, so does the success of the organization because the most valuable assets are those who walk into the office or log on remotely each day.

The benefits of having online communities that work and support learning within the company are far greater than the effort so here are some tips for getting things rolling: group leaders are very important and it is paramount that they are accepted by most members; their knowing of the audience is a must; sub-communities may be better for ensuring a personalized learning experience for each member.

Corporate trainers should not worry about going extinct any time soon. E-learning has the capacity to make their lives and jobs significantly easier. A lot of subjects that used to be a bore can now be delivered in e-learning form. Since classroom trainers do a lot more than simply deliver content in front of an audience, e-learning is actually there to make their job easier and more interesting rather than obsolete.

Whether it’s classroom or e-learning, training is costly in terms of money and time. So it is only natural for businesses to want be able to quantify the value that training sessions bring to the organization. Of course learning itself is never really over but a training cycle is deemed complete once its effectiveness has been evaluated and plans for the next steps on the learning path have been drawn.

A Learning Architect will help ensure you create a clear vision, with a clearly defined roadmap, bringing together the learning tools, learning platforms, and learning content into a form that is easy to use, scales and delivers a great learner experience.

Employees can be trained either to acquire more skills OR for developing their competencies. These are not the same thing and their value is not equal in the workplace. Skills are very specific activities, some more complex than others. Competencies are the capability of employees to apply a set of related knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform critical work functions.

By using e-learning in business training you can reach everybody in the company and if your courses are designed right, there is no challenge in getting them to stick with you. A great content design is critical for learner engagement, so you need to consider at least micro-learning, scenarios, gamification and responsive design.

Blended learning is such an efficient and easy solution for professional development that it is bound to become the norm for corporate training. It’s a wonderfully balanced combination that also lowers training costs and improves information retention. It’s just bound to become the special on the corporate training menu.